Mid Sweden University

The pandemic created a challenge for organizations and schools worldwide that raised fundamental questions about the degree to which they are sustainable. Schools and organizations around the world were put to the test on how responsive they could be to changes in their complex environments and this turbulent time in history. Educational leaders were forced to ask how schools could create more sustainable practices. Some schools struggled to adapt quickly to the needs of their stakeholders, while others saw an opportunity in the moment to create and innovate to generate new and unexpected value for their customers by increasing attractive quality (AQ) (Johnson, 2022). 

The field of quality management continues to ask questions about sustainability and informed sustainable practices in organizations. When it comes to the quality of products and processes, sustainability is becoming more and more critical, and so too are quality management principles and methods (Desmond, 2021). However, the pandemic has shown a need to innovate and develop quality management tools to meet the sustainable development needs of the world today, especially in education. Sustainability can be defined as the responsiveness of a living system to change[SK1]  in its environment, and responsiveness can be defined as the quality of reacting quickly and positively (Snyder et al., 2000). Traditionally, Total Quality Management has focused on the negative effect of customer experience and promoted convergent thinking to solve problems. The theory of attractive quality, often described as the surprise and delight attributes when purchasing or experiencing a product or service, is a strong driver of loyalty, word-of-mouth, and saleability and offers new perspectives to examine sustainable quality development (Lilja & Wiklund, 2007). 

This paper contributes to a body of research on developing attractive quality in schools by examining methodological tools that can be used to identify problems and areas of attractiveness as perceived by its customers.  By empowering both public and private school leaders with the courage and the tools to increase delivered customer value, they may be able to contribute to a more sustainable future for their stakeholders and schools.[SK2]  This research relates to UN Sustainable Development Goal Four: To ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all. It also connects to Goal Nine: To build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization, and foster innovation.[LJ3] 

This exploratory study was inspired by the problem and attraction detection study (ADS) methodology proposed by Lilja & Eriksson (2010) to capture and understand positive customer perceptions and motivations as well as negative perceptions and motivations. One-to-one interviews and focus groups accompanied the detection study to inform a value innovation system to drive the development of schools systematically based on what customers actually value. This paper aims to [LJ4] examine how the ADS methodology can be used as a possible way to analyze data, help school leaders develop an understanding of attractive quality, and begin to create a framework around how this new information has the potential to help schools become more sustainable. In the future, this research will contribute to the design and development of a new sustainable development framework for schools using quality management, attractive quality, appreciative inquiry, and customer value creation as its foundation.